Windows XP Hard drive Problem

[CC801340]

I have a strange problem with Win XP Pro - its suddenly happened to two completely different PC's (different HAL's)on my small network.

Windows explorer reports that the hard drive is 500MB in size - this is incorrect. The free space is reported as 0MB - also incorrect.

The Computer management MMC returns the correct information (Capacity 10GB, free 4.08GB on Computer1 and Capacity 6GB, free 2GB on Computer2).

The BIOS also reports the correct information.

I have tried the following:

1) Removing the drive from Device Manager and rebooting.
2) Chkdsk /f
3) Remove the IDE cable, reboot, plug the cable back in and reboot
4) Find the drive again in BIOS

However none of the above has worked.

SP2 was installed on both PC's within the last week but they have been working fine until now. I have tried uninstalling SP2 but I just get an error msg - I guess as the free space on the drive is being reported as 0MB.

Has anyone come across this before? I would rather solve this without having to do a complete format/reinstall!

Thanks

 

[bcastner]

I am not sure what numbers you are reading from Explorer, but if the display of drive capacity and free space report correctly in My Computer, you have nothing to worry about.

There are some "gotchas" about displaying drive capacity and utilization in Windows. Explorer, for example, tends not to report on System Restore caches, offline storage caches, the pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys, among other objects. As well, there are other known causes for misreporting drive utilization:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315688&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

While you sort any issues, you may find this linney find "DiskData" of some help. It has a free 30 day trial:

http://www.digallery.com/diskdata/

 

[CC801340]

The capacity/free space is not reported correctly in My Computer - only in the "Disk Management MMC".

Users cannot log on to the PC (their roaming profiles cant download) as the free disk space is reported as 0MB in "My Computer" - the "Disk Management MMC" reports the free space correctly at 4.08GB.

I would love to try "DiskData" but I will not be able to install it as "My Computer" reports that there is no free space!!!

I shall try the suggestions in the MS KB article....

 

[bcastner]

I think you should check for malware using alternate data streams. These are not uncommon anymore, and often pass themselves within a LAN.

See my notes here: thread760-936538

 

[CC801340]

I've fixed the problem!

Disk Quota's have been mysteriously turned on and set to 500MB for all users (inc Admins).

Why or how they have suddenly turned themselves on I have no idea! I had a similar problem yesterday when the Windows Firewall strangely turned itself on on the mailserver in the middle of the afternoon.....

Further to the above...quotas were being set in the domain default GP - why this would suddenly only start working overnight I have no idea!!!

The joy of inheriting someone elses network!!

Thanks for your help